Polish MPs vote for further work on anti-‘eugenic abortion’ bill

MPs have voted for further work to be done on a bill to prohibit abortion in Poland in cases where there is a high probability of serious and irreversible damage to a fetus.

Photo: PAP/Jacek Turczyk

photo - PAP/Jacek Turczyk

Poland’s current abortion laws are some of the most restrictive in Europe, allowing for terminations only where there is a real and potential risk to the mother’s health or if the fetus is known to be deformed.

The new bill would put a stop to what advocates call “eugenic abortion”.

Further work on the bill tabled by the small conservative Solidarity Poland party was voted for by 207 MPs with 189 against and 30 abstentions.

Forty MPs from the ruling Civic Platform voted for further work on the bill, alongside the conservative Law and Justice (PiS), the largest opposition party in parliament, with 28 abstaining.

The lower house of parliament also rejected a bill by the liberal Palikot Movement – which came third in last year’s general election – to allow abortions in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy, to bring Poland’s laws on terminations in line with many countries in Europe.